Geosynthetic Partners International Ltd

CCNZ themed dinner at Motorcycle Mecca tonight. Great venue and huge bike display. Well worth a visit. Laurie was in heaven.

Great first day at the CCNZ National Conference in Invercargill where GPIL and Stone Strong NZ are joint Silver Sponsors. Good support from attendees today. Highlight today was a super inspirational presentation from Sir Ian Taylor. Thankyou for reminding fellow Kiwis what can be achieved with a positive can do attitude. I hope Sir Ian's presentation was recorded by CCNZ and available to members .

Category 4 Award winner, Higgins at the CCNZ Waikato Awards last Friday.

Thanks to CCNZ Waikato for coordinating a great Awards event last night at Claudelands in Hamilton. A great turn out with almost 300 people from across our industry. Congratulations to all entries in the projects and people categories and to the Award winners. GPIL were once again proud to sponsor Category 2 an 4 Awards. GPIL offering CCNZ members a choice for your geosynthetic requirements.

Congratulations to Downer Construction and the Hastings District Council on the opening of the Crystal Creek Culvert on Matahoura Road, Tutira . The new culvert and support structure reinstates access for the local community lost in the 2023 floods. Design by Stantec with specific MSE design by Fraser Geologics using Stone Strong with Paraweb MSE walls. GPIL are proud to have supported the project with supply of Paraweb and accessories for yet another impressive Stone Strong MSE structure.

GPIL with Stone Strong are joint Gold Sponsors at the NZTA Bridge & Geotechnical Conference in Hamilton being held today and tomorrow. Great attendance and many questions from delegates about the GPIL and Stone Strong solutions and systems. Some pics of the inside and outside displays in fog bound Hamilton!

GPIL were once again proud to support the CCNZ Northland Region Annual Awards event held last Friday 21 June and sponsorship of the Environmental Award Category. GPIL’s Laurie Vercoe was in attendance on the night and is pictured presenting the award to Fulton Hogan for the Mangawhai Shared Path Project. This is an awesome timber boardwalk over the mangroves and mudflats next to main highway at Mangawhai. Well done Fulton Hogan and many thanks to the CCNZ Northland team for putting on a great night celebrating achievements in our industry.  See link for video and pictures. https://lnkd.in/g4xYGZDw

NZTA Bridge & Geotechnical Conference, 8-9 July 2024, at Claudelands in Hamilton. GPIL and Stone Strong NZ are very proud to be supporting this conference as Gold Sponsors. https://lnkd.in/gf7Jdxbr We look forward to welcoming you to our trade stands and discussing our solutions and systems for bridge abutment MSE, bank seat (true abutments) and RSS structures and many more. The Stone Strong retaining wall system is the most versatile retaining system on the planet. MSE structures with Paraweb geostraps include recent NZTA and private bridge bank seat abutment walls, including structures across the NIMT KiwiRail corridor and many piled bridge projects. Mass gravity, MSE structures, pile through, pile around, back to back, anchored walls, green walls hydraulic walls for coastal and waterways, fish passes and multiple combinations. GPIL's range of NZTA approved reinforcement includes Paraweb, MacTex W2 high strength woven geotextiles and very low strain Secugrid Q6, R6 and HS series geogrids amongst GPIL's armory of engineering solutions to help solve your problems. See you all at the conference. Talk to us and see how we can compliment and support your engineering innovation.

Take a quick look at the use of Naue's Bentofix GCL's being used for safe levee rehabilitation following floods in The Netherlands. We have similar issues in NZ and this technique is very helpful in improving our network of flood control embankments and structures around the country. https://lnkd.in/gxsXakRh

Microplastics. I was astounded but not really too surprised to recently read the following article on microplastics in Auckland waters. https://lnkd.in/gHeyMfeR Geosynthetics as an industry can highlight with much justification how the correct use of geosynthetic materials can substantially reduce the effects of carbon levels in construction, reduce the amount of valuable aggregates used on projects and make waste sites safer and more. However there are applications where exposed synthetic geotextiles may negatively affect our environment from microplastic contribution. From observations around greater Auckland, I would suggest that use of exposed geotextiles to reduce sediment run-off on earthwork sites, sediment detention ponds, simple spillways, the covering of soil stockpiles and the use as a cheap cover mat for slopes that are to be vegetated, are very poor trade offs for soil loss prevention while potentially contributing to pollution from microplastics. In an exposed situation geotextiles will suffer from UV, weathering, and also mechanically related degradation with loss of fibres. These damaged fibres and yarns may end up in our waterways, harbours and oceans and may likely contribute to the dilemma of microplastics in waterways. Regulatory bodies should reconsider current practices and specifications. The good news is that there are other natural materials that can be used in soil loss prevention. These include the latest technology from Naue Geosynthetics who have manufactured the worlds first biotextile - called Secutex Green - a structurally needled textile made from natural materials but in the form of a geotextile that has been fully certified as compostable and ideal for temporary protection of soils, sands and land in general including the use as snow covers and some applications where geotextiles are currently used. The use of Geotextile Sand Containers (GSC's) in bag and tube formats have been successfully developed over the past 30 years or more for applications in rivers, harbours, and coastal works. There are some great examples around the globe of successful structures, including local NZ and Pacific Island coastal structures. But poorly constructed GSC's have been shown to lose fibres. The potential for microplastic contribution from GSC's has not been well researched and is not well defined publicly. As an industry we should be leading the knowledge pool on quantifying what the microplastic contribution may be BEFORE submitting GSC's for exposed coastal applications. Our local and Pacific communities rely on the sea for their food sources. The dilemma of rising sea levels and land protection using GSC's that may harm food sources is a challenging issue for communities and those engineers, scientists and politicians charged with finding safe solutions.